Many types of packaging cartons are available in the marketplace which are prepared from blanks made from cardboard, plastic or other suitably flexi-stiff materials. Flexi-stiff materials are generally flexible enough for bending into place during assembly but stiff enough to retain their shape afterwards. The blanks are pre-dimensioned, pre-creased and pre-cut into sections such that when the so-defined areas are separated, folded and inter-connected, the assembled product is suitable for use in the packaging, shipping, storage and/or display of an article for which it is designed to contain.
Many versions of packaging cartons have been designed for use with lamps and lampshades. Some of these provide containment for the lamps with a separate containment for the shades. Others provide for joint packaging of the lamp and shade For example, Humphrey in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,325,209 and 6,419,085 teaches the use of packaging designed to store and protect the lamp during shipment and display. One embodiment displays only the lamp, and another displays the lamp and part of the shade.
In the above referenced spending application Ser. No. 11/154,318, a packaging device is disclosed wherein a combination view of the lamp with the shade is provided for displaying the lamp and shade together where display space for the shade is limited. In this inventive concept, a collapsible lampshade is stored behind a trunk insert panel, which via a viewing hole through the panel, allows a viewer of the packaging device to see the color and texture of the lampshade.
While the above invention provides a greater measure of utility than its predecessors, it is still lacking. While a viewer may be able to see a portion of the lampshade through the viewing hole, he does not get a sense of the look of the lamp with the shade assembled and mounted. Thus there is a need for a better way to represent the lamp and lampshade combination without taking all of the space required to actually mount the lamp.